Journal

A wander through Margarites, the hilltop pottery village near Rethymno in Crete, with working studios, epic taverna views and a lot of cats.

Most Observer’s Books are worth a few pounds, but early jacketed editions, the wartime Airplanes and the 1980 to 1982 titles can fetch far more. How to spot a first...

A guide to identifying Lalique glass by eye, and why teaching a child to recognise quality in antiques matters more now than ever.

A return trip to Portobello Road with three generations, and an honest look at the market, the antique shops that saved the day, and whether it is still worth visiting.

At home, I don't have a dining room. Our table sits in the kitchen, and on a good day it seats six, eight if some of those are children and...

My bathroom has an old mahogany mirror shelf with brass spindle columns and a scalloped apron along the bottom. It came from an auction looking a little tired, and it...

Some places reward you the moment you arrive, and Bosham is one of them. I drove down to this little village on the West Sussex coast with a loose plan...

I keep a running tally of the questions people ask me when they want to decorate with books, and the same handful come up again and again. How do you...

When I was small, I used to feel a sharp little pang of envy every September. My school friends would drift back into the classroom full of stories about France,...

There is real gold in your grandmother’s glassware, and I don’t mean that metaphorically! That deep pinkish red glow you see lit up on a windowsill or glinting from the...

I have recently come to the conclusion that the humble tea tray is, in fact, a masterpiece of domestic life through the ages. Bit of a heavy statement for a...

A Spring Morning in Bletchingley Last month took me to Bletchingley, a pretty Surrey village you can easily miss if you blink, and home to Lawrences Auctioneers, a family run...